Editors' Review

Facebook Messenger enables you to share images privately, call Facebook users anywhere in the world for free, text phone contacts, and even record voice memos. With its appealing and intuitive interface, this app proves to be more convenient than using Facebook Chat through your Web browser.

Pros

Fun to use: Facebook Messenger's streamlined interface, visual-based display with beautiful avatars and nice icons, responsive swipe gestures, and overall accessibility of the chatting, calling, and media sharing options make this a fun way to stay in touch with your network of friends and family.

Complete chatting features: The app's core feature, the text-based chat, isn't only easy to use, but also comes with a few bells and whistles that make it extremely enjoyable, like group chatting and chat heads for chatting while using other apps. The colorful stickers aren't bad, either.

Free calls: Facebook gets a big thumbs up for implementing quality free calls with any Facebook user in the world, so long as he or she uses this app.

Cons

Anyone can call you: The downside of the calling feature is that just about anyone can nag you with call requests, and there's nothing you can do about it. Maybe a future release will give us the option to block unwanted callers.

Possible security issues: You can stay connected all the time, even when using other apps, but it may make your Facebook account vulnerable if someone else gets hold of your phone when you're not looking. If you do disconnect, the password is not remembered, so to reconnect you have to re-enter it, which is a pain.

Bottom Line

Accessible, intuitive, and fun, Facebook Messenger lives up to its promise. If you use Facebook, you should definitely grab this app. Even if you don't chat that much, the free calling feature makes it worthwhile. The only possible issue with it is that it's so enjoyable that you may end up using it more than you should.

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Publisher's Description

Instantly reach the people you care about. Messenger is a fast, free and reliable way to stay in touch. It's just like texting, but you don't have to pay for every message (it works with your data plan). Get to your messages without opening Facebook.
Chat with groups and make plans on the go.
Bring messages to life with stickers.
Send photos privately.
Keep the conversation going: with chat heads, you can chat while using other apps.
Text your phone contacts, even if you're not Facebook friends.
Share your location so people know when you're nearby.
Record voice messages.
Make free calls, even to friends in other countries.
Know when people have seen your messages.
See who's available on Messenger and who's active on Facebook.
Stay logged in so you never miss a message.
Turn off notifications when you're working, sleeping or just need a break.

What's new in this version:

Groups: Now you can create groups for the people you message most. Name them, set group photos and keep them all in one place

Forwarding: Want to send a message or photo to someone who isn't in the conversation? Just tap to forward it on

Conversation Shortcuts: Create a shortcut so that you can get to any conversation right from your home screen

Free Calls: Talk as long as you want and stay in touch wherever you are. (Calls are free over Wi-Fi. Otherwi...
See all new features &raquo

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